Why are American cars still so unreliable.

You should have said, in my opinion. Apparently a lot of buyers do not agree with your personal opinion of American vehicles, they buy millions more of them every year than any import brand. LOL

mike hunt

Top selling to date (2006)

Well, lets see. Take out the trucks... which no foreign manufacturer is good at making a fullsize truck (don't make any), and we're left with 4 of the top 5 cars being foreign. Two toyotas and two hondas.

The truck sales make sense, since for every truck, there is about 10 cars , vans , mini trucks, or halfbreeds.

I would have thought hondas would be above the toyotas, but I knew toyota was creeping to number 1.

Ford F-Series 334,725

Chevrolet Silverado 258,378

Toyota Camry 177,090

Toyota Corolla/Matrix 159,992

Dodge Ram 150,799

Honda Accord 145,529

Honda Civic 138,744

Chevrolet Impala 114,014

Dodge Caravan 103,876

Nissan Altima 102,785

I hope your savin money for a trans, that Taurus is way over due.

I've replaced a LOT of cams on GM smallblocks, particularly on 307s Also lots on Ford 2300s. Changed a few on 318 Mopars too, the early "big block" engines. Also on some of the early Mopar V8s, like the red ram and firedome hemis. MANY of the 307s had to be done with less than 12000 miles, as they were done under warranty ( at the garage where I worked we sent quite a few to the dealership - we did the out of warranty ones ourselves) A lot of the fords were done with less than 24000 miles - under 2 years.

I've been wrench>>

Major snip

The trans is just fine, proper maintenance seems to have kept it as it should be.

I hope your ability to pick stocks for your retirement is better than your guess work on cars you have not seen :)

thanks for the retirement advise but already done....Just for the record, seen lots of Taurus's, mine included (well maintained) and it only made it 80k. (cracked drum, not really a maintance problem just crappy parts I guess). I guess you could say transmissions with 100k on them are alot like picking stocks, alot of guessing on how they will hold up. :)

I feel the big difference is the care or attention lavished on "foreign" cars. Most of the folks I know who buy new cars like Hondas.Toyotas, Nissans etc., have them routinely serviced at the dealer. Most people who buy "American" have a different mind set about service and can't wait to take there car to jiffy lube or the like. My Uncles Honda goes to the "dealer" 4 times a year. The dealer replace parts routinely, the big difference is they don't bill him for the parts or in some cases even tell him they replaced things. Every American dealer that replaces something make a to do about it when you pick up the car...

Working in the aftermarket and seeing a lot of used cars that need service I'd say there'd all about the same. The big thing I think is to check your local "auto trader" and see how many clean reliable 20 year old American cars versus the "foreign cars" if the Foreign cars have 33% of the market new they should have 33% of the used market not 10 % as represented by these ads

My experience is people drive the foreign cars to the grave, rather than unloading them when they get too expensive to keep on the road. With the Japs, they usually end up in the scrapyard when something MAJOR finally lets go, like the subframes fall off. The owner says "it doesn't owe me anything" and away it goes. The American owner, after spending $1000 on brakes, $600 on intake manifold, $400 on ball joints, $1400 on wheel bearings, and 300 on a timing belt,(and possibly $2400 on trasmission overhaul) finally sells it for $1500 when it needs, say, an alternator or muffler and he can't see spending another dime on the "money pit"

20 years is also a bit far down the road - in 1986 the Japs still had a small toe-hold on the market.Look at 10 years back.

Ya pays ur money and takes ur chance :))

If you think foreign car sales were the same today as they were 20 years ago you are crazy.

Furthermore, people drive their foreign cars longer than people keep their domestic vehicles. You go in to a toyota dealer, and TRY to get a used tacoma... they're near impossibe.

Any day of the week i could go to ford or chev and choose from 20 odd trucks.

20 is certainly too far, 10 is more reasonable. i mena, even 15 years ago would be too far.

Fords are freakin awesome. My family has been driven them for 4 generations. I'm the youngest with a 1989 f-250. It has over 242,000 miles on it. Unlike alot of people my parents taught me the Importance of keeping my money at home and keeping our economy strong. All of our fords have been outstanding performers only needing routine maintenance along the way. It's not the Company's fault you bought a cheap used car. And it's not the companies fault you don't know how to take care of it. After all is said and done ITS A CAR and it was never meant to last forever.I'll take a Ford before JAP CRAP any day.

And this is to the Union Hater. I'm a Loud and Proud member of the UAW and no matter what you say America's Skilled trademen are still the Best in the World and there is nothing wrong with Employer/Employee Accountabillity. Better Benefits, Better Pay, Better Standard of Living. Don't be Jealous. There is Always strength in Numbers.

Are you a troll, or just brain damaged ?

And go to the scrappy to try to find parts for japanese cars. If they are there, they are DONE, usually mashed almost beyond recognition, while there are MANY virtually undamaged American vehicles that just got too expensive to keep on the road (or couldn't pass emmissions)

More likely BOTH.

Really? Why is that when we attends an old car show we will see many domestic brands as well as many from England, Germany, and even Italy, but rarely see anything from the Japanese except for an occasional 'Z' car or an RX7. If Japanese cars are so good where are all the old cars? When counting car sales you must remember GM and Ford sell many more individual brands than the imports. When comes to total truck sales import are an also ran.

mike hunt

Ford sells trucks by the millions annually, Toyota only by the hundreds of thousands ;)

mike hunt